The purpose of the study is to show the similarity and dissimilarity of the business curricula in the thirty-one Texas public high schools of District Eight, members of the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools.

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<p> Since the mid-1990s, the role of agency in real estate transactions progressed from the representation only of sellers to include representation of homebuyers. The evolution of the dual agency concept has led to an array of problems, especially the likelihood of conflict of interest when agents or a brokerage endeavors to represent both homebuyer and seller in the same transaction. The purpose of the interpretive phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of homebuyers and sellers concerning the ethics of agents and brokerage while purchasing or selling a property under dual agency. A semi-structured interview format with open-ended questions was implemented individually with 14 participants in North Central Mississippi to capture a reflective picture of the lived experiences of participating in a dual agency transaction. The responses from the interviews were transcribed using a pragmatic format and NVivo10^&reg; software was employed to code and categorize the data. The results of the analysis led to the identification of ten themes: accurate interpretation; similar to single agency transactions; honesty, trustworthiness, and full disclosure; by reputation and referrals from others; explained at offer or contract; effect on price and transaction completion; increased knowledge and understanding of the buying and selling process; repeat participation with same agent; recommend agent to others; and benefit from question on education of agents, homebuyers, and sellers. Leaders of the real estate industry may use the findings of this study to better understand the lived experiences of homebuyers and sellers utilizing a dual agency relationship.</p>

<p> This exploratory qualitative study was used to explore the perceptions of team leads and team members of globally dispersed virtual matrix cross-functional teams regarding the four constructs of interaction influence team performance as they work together to complete projects. The four constructs of interaction &ndash; technology, communication, trust, and understanding cultural diversity formed the basis for the research question and a series of interview questions that sought responses from globally dispersed virtual team leads and team members from around the world. Participants in this study came from Australia, Brazil, China, England, Greece, India, Ireland, Poland, Thailand, and the United States. The participants also represented individuals working in Information Technology, Sourcing, Consulting, Retail, Manufacturing, and a Religious organization who provided their perspective on their teams&rsquo; interactions. Using the responses from this cross-section of individuals from countries and industries the researcher found that the four constructs of interaction, when used correctly, are perceived to improve the performance of globally dispersed virtual teams. The strength of themes reported by team members through the interview process showed that the participants thought the four constructs improved team interaction. This study allowed the extension of a branch of non-goal organizational theory to include team level interactions to the performance of a globally dispersed virtual team.</p>

<p> Small businesses support local economies by creating jobs and providing products and services, yet 50% of them fail within 5 years and only 30% of them survive for 10 years or more. The purpose of this qualitative explanatory case study was to explore how bookkeeping strategies helped 1 small business owner to sustain business growth over time. The sample was comprised of 1 small business owner who has been in business at least 5 years, experienced success, and achieved sustainability in Wake County, North Carolina. Systems theory served as the conceptual framework for this study. The data were collected through a semistructured interview and review of company documents. Transcript review and member checking were completed to strengthen credibility and trustworthiness. Based on methodological triangulation of the data sources collected, 3 themes emerged: the accountant as an advisor, the accounting system and processes, and the relationship between owner and accountant and between accountant and employees. The findings from this study may contribute to social change by providing insights and strategies for small business owners, accountants, and academics to rethink how to approach business. Accountants with advisory and management accounting skills could benefit small business owners. Future accounting students could prepare to help small business owners by gaining advisory and management accounting skills. The data from this study may contribute to the success of small business owners&rsquo; growth, sustainability, and prosperity and, subsequently, benefit their local economies.</p>

<p> A primary goal of universities is to maximize student enrollment by improving course curriculum and enhancing specific programs. This is especially a challenge for smaller universities who want to offer specialized and highly diverse electives. This study aims to increase the quality and relevance of electives offered by understanding specifically what attributes students prefer more or less when choosing among alternatives. The results are used to explore how to use limited marketing and student-outreach financial resources to target students that are most likely to enter and complete courses and programs, based in part on their socioeconomic or demographic characteristics. The application is aimed at the economics unit at Michigan Technological University, which offers two programs: an undergraduate economics major and a master&rsquo;s program in applied natural resource economics. Using an efficiently-designed discrete-choice experiment, this study elicits over 700 students&rsquo; stated preferences over a variety of attributes of economics courses related to the natural environment. Students were surveyed, and each student was presented with six different pairwise choice options that were developed based on 36 different alternative courses consisting of 8 attributes, such as class topics, professor rank, time of day, and research requirement. There were three significant covariates (political preference, economic interest, and domestic/foreign status). A latent-class discrete-choice random-utility model is estimated to probabilistically group students into different preference classes. Four preference classes emerge from the results that are highly heterogeneous in terms of the marginal utilities and the probabilities of being in a given class. For example, the largest class (40%) is made up of mostly conservative students, and the smallest class (12%) is made almost entirely of liberal students. While this study and the applicability of the specific results is unique to Michigan Technological University, the use of stated preference surveys and latent-class models is highly flexible and can be applied to any program at any university</p>

<p>The workplace is in a transition with age demographics (Mann, 2006). The baby boomers, once a large and dominating force in the workplace are now in their initial years of a decade?s move into retirement. And with such a large demographic change, there is a vacuum that is created and then filled. Many industry analysts have deemed this transition as the "Great shift change." In the workplace, vacancies are being created en mass at the managerial and executive levels. Due to the recession of 2008-2012, the baby boomers remained in the marketplace for an extended period of time, some say to rebound with their depleted retirements. As the economy made its way back to normalcy, an intersection of market forces hit. This collision of market forces is the emergence of an economy out of recession and an age demographic beginning an advanced pace of retirements that analysts say will last up to 20 years. Due to a high turnover of the baby boomer generation with the Millennial generation in the market, succession planning is key to maintain productivity and smooth the transition in demographics while providing services to increasing student populations. This dissertation will utilize case studies to analyze this market event and see how private higher education institutions located in Los Angeles, California are handling succession planning in an aggressive employment demographic change.